St. Landry democrat., 1887-07-30


the god Veda and said: "My mission is
a failure; you see haven't brought the
mustard seed don't find place where
there has been no sorrow and no death"
"Oh," says the god Veda, understand
your sorrows are no worse than the sor-
rows of others we all have our griefs,
and all have our heart-breaks."
Laugh and the world laughs with you,
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of it's own.
We hear great deal of discussion
now all over the land about why people
do not 90 to church. Some say it is
because Christianity is dying out, and
because people do not believe in the
truth of Gods word, and all that. They
are false reasons The reason is because
our sermons and exhortations are not
interesting and practical and helpful.
Some one might as well tell the whole
truth on this subject, and. so | will tell
it. The religious discourse of the future,
the Gospel sermon to come forth and
shake the nations and lift people out of
darkness, will be popular sermon, just
for the simple reason that it will meet
the woes and the wants and the
anXieties of the people.
There are in all our denominations
ecclesiastical mummies sitting around to
frown upon the fresh young pulpits of
America, to try to awe them down, to
cry out Tut tut tut! Sensational y
They stand to-day preaching in churches
that hold a thousand people, and there
are a hundred persons present, and If
they cannot have the world saved in
their way it seems as if they do not
want it saved at all.
| do not know but the old way of
making ministers of the Gospel is better
"a collegiate education and an appren-
ticeship under the care and home atten-
ton of some earnest, aged Christian
minister, the young man getting the
patriarch's spirit and assisting him in his
religious service. Young lawyers study
with old lawyers, young p ysicians with
old physicians and | believe it would be
great help if every young man studying
for the Gospel ministry could put him
self in the home and heart and sympathy
and under the benediction and perpetual
presence of Christian minister.
But | remark again, the religious dis
course of the future will be an awaken
ing sermon. From altar-rail to the front
door step under that sermon an audience
will get up and start for Heaven. There
will be in it many a staccato passage. 1t
will not be a lullaby; it will be battle
charge Men will drop their sins, for
they will feel the hot breath of pursuing
retribution on the back of their necks.
1t will be sympathetic with all the physi-
cal distresses as we'll as the spiritual dis
tresses of the world Christ not only
preached, but He healed paralysis, and
He healed epilepsy, and He healed the
dumb and the blind and ten lepers.
That religious discourse of the future
will be an everyday sermon, going right
down into every mans life, and it will
teach him to vote, how to bargain, how
to pillow, how to do any work he is
called to, how to WELD trowel and pen
and pencil and yardstick and plane.
And it Will teach women how to preside
over their households, and how to edu-
cate their children, and how to initiate
Miriam and Esther and Vashti and
Eunice, the mother of Timothy, and
Mary, the mother of Christ; and those
women who on Northern and Southern
battlefelds were mistaken by the
wounded for angels of mercy fresh from
the throne of God.
Yes, / have to tell you the religious
discourse of the future will be a reported
sermon If you have any idea t hat
secular books, and stenography and
set forth secular ideas, you are mistaken.
The printing press is to be the great
agency of gospel proclamation. 1t is
J., orb hot IF do
nouncing the press, employ it to scatter
forth the gospel of Jesus Christ. The
vast majority of people in our cities do
not come to church, and nothing but the
printed sermon can reach them and call
them to pardon, and life, and peace, and
Heaven.
So cannot understand the nervous
ness of some of my brethren of the min
istry. When they see a newspaper man
coming in they say: "Alas, there is re-
porter" Every added reporter is ten
thousand-ffty thousand-a hundred
thousand immortal souls added to the au.
ditory The time will come when all the
village, town and city newspapers will
reproduce the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and
sermons preached on the Sabbath will
reverberate all around the world, and
some by type, and some by voice-all ma
tons will be evangelical.
The practical bearing of this is upon
those who are engaged in Christian
work, not only upon theological students
and young ministers, but upon all who
preach the Gospel, and all who exhort in
meetings, and that is all of you if you
are doing your duty. Do you exhort in
prayer-meeting? Be short and be
spirited. Do you teach in Bible-class
Though you have to study every night
be interesting. Do you accost people on
the subject Of religion in their homes or
in public places? Study adroitness and
use common sense. The most graceful
and most beautiful thing on earth is the
religion of Jesus Christ, and if you
awkwardly present it, it is defamation.
We must do our work rapidly, and we
must do it effectively, Soon our time
for work will be gone.
A dying Christian took out his watch
and gave it to friend and said Take
that watch, l have no more use for it;
time is ended for me and eternity be-
gins" Oh, my friends, when our watch
has licked away for us the last moment,
and our clock has struck for us the last
hour, may it be found we did our work
well, that we did it in the very best way,
and whether we preached the Gospel in
pulpits or taught Sabbath classes, or